After dinner, Ned revealed that he had snuck aboard a bottle of Ardbeg Uigeadail, one of the smokiest, peatiest, single malt Scotches this side of Edinburgh; a spirit “as deep and mysterious as the loch that gives it its name" and one that smacks of distilled pine tar.

The Drumochter Hills are a breeding haunt of dotterel, ptarmigan occur at high density, and where the ground is peatier, especially east of the Pass, golden plover and dunlin breed in company with these other birds at around 900 m.